Systems Engineering - Curriculum 580

Program Officer

CDR Caleb MacDonald

Code 74, Watkins Hall, Room 107A

(831) 656-2033, DSN 756-2033

caleb.macdonald@nps.edu

Academic Associate

Mark Stevens

Bullard Hall, Room 201, Letter I

(831) 656-7545, DSN 756-7545

mstevens@nps.edu

Brief Overview

Systems Engineering at NPS provides a broad education in systems engineering methods and tools, and depth in a particular domain of application. Several domain tracks are offered, including combat systems engineering, ship systems engineering, and network-centric systems engineering. Other tracks are added, based on sponsor and student demand. The tracks consist of seven or more courses to gain depth in the domain area. These tracks complement the standard set of systems engineering courses. The curriculum is interdisciplinary and draws on courses from across campus.

Students come from the uniformed services, civilian members of government, and from foreign military services. Navy Engineering Duty Officers constitute a substantial portion of the students.

Convenes

Fall, Spring

Program Length

21 Months

Subspecialty

Completion of this curriculum qualifies a naval officer as a systems engineering sub-specialist, subspecialty code 5800. The curriculum sponsor is the Director, Strategic Systems Program (SSP).

Requirements for Entry

Students must have an academic profile code of 234, which implies a 2.2 or better undergraduate GPA, a calculus sequence with a C+ or better grade, and a calculus-based physics sequence with a C+ or better grade.

Degree

Completion of all the requirements of curriculum 580 leads to the award of the MSSE or MSES degree. Refer to the MSSE or MSES program requirements for eligibility.

Typical Course of Study

Students have a wide set of options for their specialization tracks. Below is a typical course matrix for the ship systems track.

Refresher Quarter

Quarter 1

Course Number	Title	Lecture Hours	Lab Hours
OS3180	Probability and Statistics for Systems Engineering	4	1
SE3100	Fundamentals of Systems Engineering	3	2
AE2440	Introduction to Scientific Programming	3	2
SE3112	Combat Systems Engineering I- Intro to Sensors	4	2

Quarter 2

Course Number	Title	Lecture Hours	Lab Hours
SI3400	Fundamentals of Engineering Project Management	3	2
SE3250	Capability Engineering	3	2
SE3810	Systems Engineering Seminar	0	2
SE3011	Engineering Economics and Cost Estimation	3	0
SE4112	Combat Systems Engineering III	4	2

Quarter 3

Course Number	Title	Lecture Hours	Lab Hours
SE4150	Systems Architecting and Design	3	2
SE3302	System Suitability	3	2
SE3121	C4ISR Systems	3	2
SE3113	Combat Systems Engineering II- Conventional Weapons	4	2

Quarter 4

Course Number	Title	Lecture Hours	Lab Hours
SE3201	Engineering Systems Conceptualization	2	4
SE4115	Combat Systems Integration	4	2
OA4603	Test and Evaluation	4	0
ELECT	Advanced SE Elective

Quarter 5

Course Number	Title	Lecture Hours	Lab Hours
SE3202	Engineering Systems Design	2	4
SE0811	Thesis in Systems Engineering	0	8
SE4113	Combat Systems Engineering IV- Unconventional Weapons	3	2
OS4680	Naval Systems Analysis	4	0
SE3000	Systems Engineering Colloquium	1	0

Quarter 6

Course Number	Title	Lecture Hours	Lab Hours
SE0811	Thesis in Systems Engineering	0	8
SE3203	Engineering Systems Implementation & Operation	2	4
EO2701	Introduction to Cyber Systems	4	2
SE3000	Systems Engineering Colloquium	1	0

Quarter 7

Course Number	Title	Lecture Hours	Lab Hours
ELECT	Advanced SE Elective
SE0811	Thesis in Systems Engineering	0	8
ELECT	Track Elective
SE3000	Systems Engineering Colloquium	1	0
ELECT	General Elective

Educational Skill Requirements

Systems Engineering Curriculum 580

Subspecialty Code 5800P

Officers entering the Systems Engineering curriculum will be offered the necessary preparatory-level courses to satisfy the equivalent of a baccalaureate degree in engineering. They shall meet, as a minimum, the requirements set forth by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET. At the graduate level, the officer will acquire the competence to effectively contribute as a systems engineer to naval systems research, design, development, maintenance and acquisition. The officer will gain the ability to effectively integrate future technological, engineering, and acquisition approaches with existing practice through a combination of core systems engineering courses, specialization studies, and project/thesis research. An officer will meet the below-listed ESRs through the completion of a program of study determined by the officer, the Program Officer, and the Academic Associate. Individual programs, and how they support the officer's attainment of the ESRs, will be specifically designed to meet the needs of the Navy and the officer's interests.

Undergraduate Mathematics and Basic Sciences: Understand and apply engineering-baccalaureate-equivalent mathematics and basic sciences. For mathematics, this includes single- and multi-variable differential and integral calculus, ordinary differential equations, probability, and statistics. Basic sciences include physics, chemistry, and terrestrial sciences. This can be met by the appropriate undergraduate work.
Capability Engineering: Model and analyze military operations in the context of achieving needed capability. Apply model-based systems engineering approaches, based on UML or SysML, and modeling and simulation techniques, and be able to assess legacy systems, emerging technological concepts, and as-yet-to-be-developed concepts into the joint warfighting environment considering technology readiness levels, effectiveness, cost, and risk. Understand the process of warfighting gaps to synthesis of as-yet-realized system concepts to meet emerging capability needs. Understand and apply modeling and simulation to include deterministic and stochastic modeling of systems, economic models, cost models, and life-cycle suitability analyses. This includes the ability to develop original discrete-event and continuous run-time simulations, as well some familiarity with large-scale government and commercial warfighting simulations.
System Architecting: Perform system architecting, applying and integrating methods for both software and hardware aspects. Construct feasible system functional and physical architectures that represent a balanced approach to meeting stakeholder needs and expectations, stated, implied, and derived system requirements, and suitability objectives such as being open, modular, extensible, maintainable, and reusable. Understand system architecture frameworks and their role in architecture development. Use model-based systems engineering techniques, based on UML or SySML to create, define, and develop system architectures. Develop, analyze, and compare alternative architectures against appropriate, system-level evaluation criteria and select the best based on quantitative and qualitative analysis, as appropriate.
System Design: Understand and apply the system design process in a holistic context, applying and integrating methods for both software and hardware aspects including identifying capability need, defining requirements, conducting functional analysis and allocation to hardware, software, and human elements, creating a system functional design, designing a system, deriving and defining requirement specifications, allocating requirement specifications to sub-systems (for hardware, software, and human elements), design for suitability, including reliability, availability, maintainability, operability, and logistical supportability, perform system assessment by conducting trade-off studies, evaluating system design alternatives against system capability need expressed as military effectiveness, estimating and analyzing the system cost and risk, including risk mitigation strategies, integrating human elements into the system design, and analyzing and planning for system testing and evaluation.
Engineering Design Analysis: Understand and apply core qualitative and quantitative methods of engineering design analysis, to include problem formulation, alternatives development, alternatives modeling and evaluation, alternatives comparison, optimization, decision analysis, failure analysis, risk analysis, and futures analysis. Mathematical techniques may include multiple criteria optimization, design of experiments, response surface methods, set-based design, real options, systems dynamics, and probabilistic analyses.
System Integration and Development: Apply the core skills of system integration and development to include integrating relevant technological disciplines that bear on the system effectiveness and cost, including weapons, sensor and information systems, while being responsive to realistic military capability need and warfighting effectiveness, requirements, functions, specifications, cost, and risk. Integrate systems and analyze aspects during the entire life-cycle. Understand system realization methods and processes, including prototyping and production. Apply production quality methods for continuous process improvement, such as statistical process control, lean, and six sigma.
System Test & Evaluation: Apply the core skills of system test and evaluation to include system effectiveness while being responsive to realistic military capability need and warfighting effectiveness, requirements, functions, and specifications. Evaluate systems and analyze test and evaluation aspects during the entire life-cycle using inferential statistics methods, including design of experiments (DOE) and analysis of variance (ANOVA). Apply fundamental verification and validation principles to systems development methods.
Human Systems Integration: Address human factors during requirements definition, as well as workload, safety, training, operability and ergonomics during design. Conduct functional analysis and allocation to human elements, performing cost-risk-effectiveness trade-offs among hardware, software, and human elements. Evaluate proposed designs for man-machine integration, human performance testing, and usability during development test and evaluation. Understand basic human biology as applied to human systems.
Project Management: Work as a team member or leader on a military systems engineering project. Demonstrate an understanding of project management principles. Demonstrate competence in the planning and management of complex projects. Understand the principles of and apply current industry approaches and technology to manage systems design, integration, test, and evaluation for large engineering projects.
Specialization: Demonstrate in-depth understanding of the principles, technologies, and systems used in at least one major specialty area. These areas can be specific warfare areas, such as combat systems, total ship systems, EW, IW, avionics, undersea warfare, or net-centric systems, a single traditional engineering specialty, such as mechanical, electrical, software, aerospace engineering, or naval architecture, or specialized disciplines such as human factors, availability, or safety. Demonstrate in-depth understanding of the scientific and engineering principles of the respective specialty, such as sensors, weapons, C4I systems, information systems, ship structures, hydrodynamics, power systems, and reliability. Demonstrate broad understanding of systems context of the specialization. Apply that understanding to the design of system components, sub-systems, and interfaces in the holistic context of the engineering of systems.
Cyber*: Understand and apply the fundamentals of the underlying principles of cyber infrastructure and systems; inherent vulnerabilities and threats, including industrial control systems; and defensive security procedures. (*ESR required for 14XX designators only)
Thesis: Conduct independent analysis and research in the area of Systems Engineering, and show proficiency in presenting the results in writing and orally by means of a thesis and command-oriented briefing appropriate to this curriculum.